Retail TouchPoints Selects A&W Canada for the 2014 Store Operations Superstar Awards

A&W Canada Leverages Loop® Mobile Customer Engagement Solution to Drive Real-Time Operational Insight and Staff Action to Improve the Guest Experience

Hasbrouck Heights, NJ – September 22, 2014 – Retail TouchPoints, the industry’s go-to source for customer engagement strategies, today announced A&W Food Services of Canada, Inc. (TSE: AW.UN) as the winner of its Store Operations Superstar Awards in the area of Customer Engagement. The Store Operations Superstar Awards recognizes 14 companies that have implemented the most innovative, successful store operations strategies in 4 categories. A&W Canada was selected in the area of Customer Engagement for its deployment of Loop® Mobile Customer Engagement, by Benbria®.

“The Store Operations Superstar Awards recognize organizations tackling intense challenges from managing mobile technology to motivating employees,” said Debbie Hauss, Editor-in-Chief of Retail TouchPoints. “A&W Canada is driving operational excellence by better connecting with their customers through their preferred choice of communications. These real-time connections are giving A&W the opportunity to satisfy customer needs on-the-spot which creates a deeper personal connection between employees and customers.”

“We deployed the Loop solution to motivate the restaurant team to focus on what matters to our guests,” said Nancy Wuttunee, Senior Director Operations Excellence, A&W Canada. “Our staff has the ability to act on satisfaction levels during each visit and take the necessary steps operationally to delight our guests.”

Guests are given two different methods for providing their satisfaction insights, depending on the nature of their restaurant visit. In-restaurant, take-out and drive-thru guests can enter their input on a mobile web app. In-restaurant guests also have the ability to enter their input on an iPad located at a kiosk in the restaurant. “As part of our multi-channel strategy, these kiosks are an optional component of the Loop solution that we decided to invest in as it was a critical part in making sure our guests could easily and quickly give us their feedback in the moment,” added Wuttunee.

Another unique and powerful feature of the Loop solution is its live electronic scoreboard, which gives restaurant staff real-time visibility into guest satisfaction metrics. Loop gives staff the ability to watch the counts go up in each category instantaneously as guests enter their Loop ratings. “Our experience to date shows that live guest insight is instrumental in motivating our staff to improve the guest experience in real time while helping us to drive operational excellence,” Wuttunee said.

“From an operational perspective, the live scoreboard gives A&W staff a huge advantage in terms of agility and responsiveness,” said Ronald Richardson, Co-Founder and Vice President of Sales, Benbria. “If at any time staff members notice an uptick in negative ratings in any category, they can immediately investigate potential causes and take the appropriate corrective action.”

Click here to view the Store Operations Superstar Awards winners and each winning abstract.

About Retail TouchPoints
Retail TouchPoints is an online publishing network for retail executives, with content focused on optimizing the customer experience across all channels. The Retail TouchPoints network is comprised of a weekly newsletter, category-specific blogs, special reports, web seminars, exclusive benchmark research, and a content-rich web site featuring daily news updates and multi-media interviews at www.retailtouchpoints.com. The Retail TouchPoints team also interacts with social media communities via Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

A&W Food Services of Canada, Inc.
A&W Food Services of Canada Inc. (TSE: AW.UN) is Canada’s second largest hamburger restaurant company with over 800 locations coast-to-coast. A&W Food Services of Canada is 100 per cent Canadian owned and is one of the strongest brand names in the Canadian food service industry. A&W Restaurants feature famous trade-marked menu items such as The Burger Family®, Chubby Chicken®, and A&W Root Beer®. For more information, please visitawguarantee.ca

About Benbria
Loop®, by Benbria Corporation, is a communications and operational change solution that helps national retail, restaurant and hotel brands to prevent or resolve issues, streamline operations and enhance the customer experience in the moment. Leveraging the customer’s preferred choice of communications – SMS/MMS, mobile web, mobile app, email and kiosk – Loop allows customers to communicate directly with management and staff to make requests, resolve issues and share their experience before, during and after their visit. Closing the loop through on-the-spot staff action helps brands to save dissatisfied customers, improve in-store sales conversion rates and foster positive reviews. For more information: www.benbria.com.

Media Contact:
James Geneau
Benbria Corporation
jgeneau@benbria.com